Perhaps many buy and sell merit points in secret, I think it is very difficult to get merit points, most people will probably take a shortcut, maybe they have multiple accounts to send each other..
I think selling Merit points is not prohibited by the moderators if im not wrong. We can't avoid that cheating we must be friendly too so that anyone would love your post and give a damn time to click add merit. It was just like owe your kindness when you give him for return.
That's a desperate one, everyone is aware that merits are not for sale and it shouldn't be bought.
It was just one random thread which I noticed. But take a look here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2823221.0You can see how many people are suspected that they are abusing Merit system. So, not everyone aware that they shouldn't sell merits. And I'm sure that some of these people understand and know what they are doing and how they are risking
All of us wants to have merits but not in that way selling or buying LOL. Also we couldn't control their accounts and when a shitposter could earn high merit, this system would be useless.